Google can now be used as a noun or a verb. But where did the name originate 10 years ago? The name comes from the word "googol" meaning 10 to the 100th power, which is considered an infinite number. Considering the company's expansion in the past 10 years, the name seems fitting.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company in September 1998. In December of that same year, PC Magazine named Google its favorite search engine.
In 1999, the company opened two offices in California. It grew from eight employees in 1998 to 40 employees the following year.
Google was released in 15 other languages in 2000. That same year, the search engine linked to a billion URLs, making it the world's largest search engine.
2001 brought the release of Google's image search engine, the opening of its first international office in Tokyo and growth to 26 languages linking to three billion URLs.
These are just the early accomplishments of the company that now employs more than 10,000 people and provides links to more than a trillion URLs.
For its 10th anniversary, Google launched its own Web browser: Chrome. Chrome is one of the most simplistic Web browsers available. It provides Google search in the address bar as you type. The program also provides thumbnails to the browser's most-visited sites in place of a home page.
In its 10-year reign, Google has revolutionized the academic community, some Ball State University faculty said. Research has been significantly simplified, James Jones, assistant director of research and design for University Computing Services, said.
"Google has made it more efficient and easier to find information," Jones said. "Primarily before, we would trek over to the library and start digging through journals."
Jones expects to see Google make full text articles available, similar to a research database such as Academic Search Premier.
Paul Gestwicki, assistant professor of computer science, has changed the design of assignments since the introduction of Google.
"It is no longer the case that we can just blindly give questions without considering the fact that the answers are readily available," he said.
Gestwicki said this is a good change because it forces student to look for more than just the answer. It forces a more analytical question.
"You can ask much more deep questions even using the fact that students can just go look for these answers," he said.
Vinayak Tanksale, an instructor of computer science at Ball State, said Google has affected the academic community a huge way.
It all started with a search engine, Tanksale said, and now the company has grown into advertising, instant messaging, a Web browser, e-mail, documents and more.
Tanksale said Google will continue to influence the world in even more ways than in the past 10 years. Google is working on a cell phone that will compete with the iPhone and Blackberry.
"They will continue to come out with new products," he said. "It just seems they're going to hit it big in the next 10 years."
Tanksale said he expects Google to come out with an operating system to compete with Windows, Mac and Linux.
"If they can make a browser, what is stopping them from making an open-source operating system like Linux?" he said.
The creators of Google had an idea that was better than anything that was already available, Gestwicki said,
"It was a simply better user experience for those that wanted to search," he said. "They will continue to think of things that make life better that simply don't exist yet."
Jones added that he was amazed that Google had been around for 10 years and had such an impact on the academic community.
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